ARTiculation: Fine vs. practical
I’ve noticed at the ripe age of 24 that things
aren’t quite how they used to be. I remember
being released from high school art class with
the complete certainty that if it wasn’t spent
painting, my life would be wasted.
Things were so black and white. Paint or die.
But as I began to talk to people and experience things, I noticed the grey creeping in; the edges blurring. And before I knew it, the line between fine art and applicable art (practical design) was as indistinguishable as Will Ferrell and that drummer from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I’ve thought about this a lot – art and design, not celebrity doppelgängers – and I can’t quite tell where, exactly, one ends and the next begins.
In my very first column last year, I wrote about the purpose of art. Essentially, I concluded that we should make art to both document what it’s like to live in our era, and to make a statement about how we feel about it.
Art should be made to comment on the society, which it’s a product of. It’s meant to intrigue, inform and propel viewers to further think about things they otherwise may not. And now that I’m deep into my graphic design program and have chosen to focus on information design in my career, I’m realizing that what I’m going to do is not a whole lot different from that.
Information design is the organization and visualization of data. A designer will take a set of raw data and organize it so the information is clear and concise, then illustrate it in a creative way to attract an audience to the information.
On a more complex scale, research companies like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology are using information design to visualize very difficult concepts to understand, like one that chronicles the Mars rover’s collected data.
It’s become a very powerful tool for the public to access information that they likely wouldn’t otherwise seek out on their own. What better way is there to inform people about what’s going on in the world than to take the concepts that are twisted and knotted in their minds, and tidy them up?
The most important thing is not necessarily that we push our own agenda on the population, but that we give them the facts in a neat little package so that they digest them and draw their own conclusions, whether they agree with you or not. The ability to think critically is a sorely untapped resource.
Both fine art and practical design have profound uses. Both propose ideas to the audience in a creative and expressive manner. The difference is found in scope of audience. While design seeks to reach a broad audience and make ideas as easy to understand as possible, fine art tends to present its ideas more abstractly, and to its own circle of loyal followers.
In the midst of my major Banksy-eqsue phase, I thought anyone who became a designer or commissioned artist was “selling out,” working for The Man and yadda yadda. But now, as someone who has intentionally shifted their focus from fine art as a medium to information design, I realize that this is the way I can most effectively excite the population into understanding a little more about the world around them.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Things were so black and white. Paint or die.
But as I began to talk to people and experience things, I noticed the grey creeping in; the edges blurring. And before I knew it, the line between fine art and applicable art (practical design) was as indistinguishable as Will Ferrell and that drummer from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I’ve thought about this a lot – art and design, not celebrity doppelgängers – and I can’t quite tell where, exactly, one ends and the next begins.
In my very first column last year, I wrote about the purpose of art. Essentially, I concluded that we should make art to both document what it’s like to live in our era, and to make a statement about how we feel about it.
Art should be made to comment on the society, which it’s a product of. It’s meant to intrigue, inform and propel viewers to further think about things they otherwise may not. And now that I’m deep into my graphic design program and have chosen to focus on information design in my career, I’m realizing that what I’m going to do is not a whole lot different from that.
Information design is the organization and visualization of data. A designer will take a set of raw data and organize it so the information is clear and concise, then illustrate it in a creative way to attract an audience to the information.
On a more complex scale, research companies like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology are using information design to visualize very difficult concepts to understand, like one that chronicles the Mars rover’s collected data.
It’s become a very powerful tool for the public to access information that they likely wouldn’t otherwise seek out on their own. What better way is there to inform people about what’s going on in the world than to take the concepts that are twisted and knotted in their minds, and tidy them up?
The most important thing is not necessarily that we push our own agenda on the population, but that we give them the facts in a neat little package so that they digest them and draw their own conclusions, whether they agree with you or not. The ability to think critically is a sorely untapped resource.
Both fine art and practical design have profound uses. Both propose ideas to the audience in a creative and expressive manner. The difference is found in scope of audience. While design seeks to reach a broad audience and make ideas as easy to understand as possible, fine art tends to present its ideas more abstractly, and to its own circle of loyal followers.
In the midst of my major Banksy-eqsue phase, I thought anyone who became a designer or commissioned artist was “selling out,” working for The Man and yadda yadda. But now, as someone who has intentionally shifted their focus from fine art as a medium to information design, I realize that this is the way I can most effectively excite the population into understanding a little more about the world around them.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
